


On The Twelfth Chime Of Midnight

by LinusPearl



Series: Treading Red Waters [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Day two - Sunrise, Established Relationship, Illness, M/M, MikoRin Week 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:06:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinusPearl/pseuds/LinusPearl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seijuro chuckled. There it was, that sappy side, never failed to catch him off guard. Seijuro adjusted the black beanie over Rin’s head who simply hummed in thanks. His other arm snaked around Rin who leant closer but it felt like Seijuro was trying to hold water between open fingers, impossible, useless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Twelfth Chime Of Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> Here is my entry for day two of MikoRin Week with an angsty oneshot! Hope you'll like. ^^

Rin’s head  _softly lolled_  on Seijuro’s shoulder. Seijuro gripped Rin and his fingers dug deep into the thick fabric of the sweater before encountering the shape of frail shoulders. The slight movement shook Rin out of his slumber, heavy lids fighting to keep from falling back shut.

“You okay? Not cold?” Seijuro asked,  **pressing his face against Rin’s cheek**.

“Nah, I have you, can’t be cold.”

Seijuro chuckled. There it was, that sappy side,  _never failed to catch him off guard_. Seijuro adjusted the black beanie over Rin’s head who simply hummed in thanks. His other arm snaked around Rin who leant closer but it felt like Seijuro was  **trying to hold water between open fingers, impossible, useless.**

Trembling fingers searched his and Seijuro held them, brought them to his lips and kissed them. Rin was looking at him as if he was a character from a distant dream,  _hazed eyes following the gentle presses_  Seijuro applied to his knuckles like it was the most hypnotic thing ever. Rin’s heavy lids fluttered, and the small rasping gasp that fell from those too dry lips didn’t even alarm Seijuro. A pang in his stomach made the sadness of being used to what threw him in a panic just months ago even more tangible.

“We could watch it from your room.”

Seijuro was simply making small talk here, even in his state,  _Rin was still as stubborn as ever_.

“Not a chance. I can’t jog anymore, I want to be outside.” Rin pouted, and the frown that accompanied it was still strange to Seijuro’s eyes.

He brushed the tip of his finger on the wrinkles of the now hairless skin nonetheless,  **like he always did before**.  _It felt fresh and too soft, fragile_. Rin lifted his right hand and ran absent mindedly his bony fingers on Seijuro’s right cheek.  _The chill air around them made their breath foggy_. Seijuro cradled Rin a little closer, unzipped his hoodie to zip it back around the both of them. Rin hissed and Seijuro knew not to ask, it was probably a mix of pain and relief at the change of position and the difference in temperature.

Again, Rin pushed his right hand through the collar to caress Seijuro’s right cheek. Rin’s eyes seemed more focused as he flattened is palm against Seijuro’s cheek, fingernails gently scrapping the base of his hairline here.

“There.” Rin breathed out, features relaxed. “My favorite sunrise.”

Seijuro smiled fondly, rubbed the back of his neck with one hand,  **feeling the rays of the sun there**.  _He couldn’t help the proud grin even though his heart tightened_.

Seijuro knew the sun was in his back and it caught in his hair, and that it was the reason why Rin had insisted on going sightseeing the sun rising. Again, that rasping inhale. Seijuro smiled,  **what more could he do**  when his lover was carding tender fingers through his hair, a chill morning breeze swaying them.

“You look like...” Rin had to take in another labored breath before continuing. “a will-o’-the-wisp...”

Seijuro rose an eyebrow at that. “A what?”

Rin’s chuckle turned into a painful cough, body squeezing and contorting on itself.

“Okay big boy” Seijuro started as he freed his lover from his sweater and promptly zipped it up with one hand, his occupied arm securing a loop around Rin’s waist. “Time to go.”

Seijuro lifted Rin in his arms,  _fast and high_ , knowing it would make Rin laugh, hard, and turn his cheeks pink,  **like they used to be**. Seijuro also knew it would shorten his breath, torture his already too worn lungs. The small jolt made Rin laugh, just like he predicted. Then he cough some more, and by the time Seijuro reached the wheelchair few steps away, Rin looked like he ran a marathon, breath sharp and wheezing.

He let himself be sat and adjusted the small oxygen tubes in nostrils with shaking fingers as Seijuro wrapped it securely but loose enough behind the beanie. Then Seijuro splayed a cover on Rin’s legs, patting the fabric on his knee, ready to leave the river bank.

“There you go buddy, all set.” Seijuro announced, still kneeling in front of Rin.

“Thanks Prince Charming.” Rin snorted, rolling his eyes.

_He almost looked healthy_  with the sun sending splashes of vivid orange and purple and yellow and pink on his face. How it cast a soft golden shadow on his cheeks and lips. Seijuro felt his heart squeeze, and for once,  **he was the one not able to breathe properly**. Seijuro barely managed to blink away the water stinging his eyes. He leant up and pressed his lips to Rin whose eyes went round and his cheeks turned a shade of pink that had long missed being there.

“You idiot!” Rin slammed the edge of his hand on Seijuro’s head. “Why’d you do that?”

“Because I’m Prince Charming, of course !”

Rin turned his face away, cheeks still a lovely rosy tint. “Don’t do that in public...” he mumbled.

Seijuro pushed his glasses up his nose, still not used to them. He blinked owlishly at his laptop screen, displaying the definition of wil-o-the-wisp. With a trembling searching hand,  _making the effort to ignore the sudden noises_  of the machine helping Rin to breathe and the bleeps of the monitor that were just buzzing background sounds seconds ago, Seijuro grabbed his bag on the empty seat next to his.

Hesitating, he snapped closed his laptop first then fumbled inside his bag, grumbled at his blurred vision. As he took in a breath in an attempt to calm down, Seijuro rubbed a hand to his eyes  **only for the heel of his palm to encounter his glasses**. He set them aside. With yet another intake of breath, Seijuro bit the inside of his jaw, the lithe form of Rin’s body barely moving. He found the worn notepad with the black pen and his chewed cap attached to it.

Before the painkillers kicked in, Rin had asked him to do something for him,  _something Rin usually did himself in spite of his shaking hands and the pain of using his fingers_. Seijuro turned swiftly, quickly the pages, avoiding at all cost those marked as  _memories_  and trying not to let his eyes wander and notice how wavering, fragile, more and more  _childlike_  Rin’s handwriting appeared. 

There, the page list. More like pages. Four exactly. A good portion of the bullet points wishes were scratched or barred. Not necessarily in order. Seijuro skimmed through the lines, searching for that  ** _watching the sunrise with babe_**  line.

_It’s an old list, y’know. Made it after high school._

Rin had been smiling fondly at the notepad when he said that. There! At the bottom of the page... Seijuro’s eyes lifted to the middle though,  _tip of the pen trembling above the words he should scratch_. That date. It wasn’t unusual to see dates in that wish list, not even for Seijuro who often peered over Rin’s shoulder to try and see. His fingers tightened on the pen and he barred a line strong enough  **he could’ve ripped the page off of the notepad**. Then threw bag, pen and notepad across the room.

_May 14th: Met that hottie, going for a date in two days!/ Results came back, stage two lung cancer..._

Seijuro fell back in his chair, hands fisting in his hair. With a quivering breath out, he let his elbows drop to his knees, squeezed his eyes shut.  _Everything was whirling in his mind_ : Rin’s sad smile on their first date, the soft press of his palm on his cheek earlier this morning, the shaky writing about the results, Rin’s shyness after his kiss, that tender dreamy smile he had when the sun rose and  **that stupid machine fuckingly noisy...**

Eyes fixed on the tiled floor,  _the date kept looping back in his head_. Seijuro’s face wrinkled, vision blurry. The nearby church rang in the distance, twelve times.  _May 14th._

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to dedicate this fic to all the readers out there fighting against illness. It's also dedicated to all the people close to them, fighting with them.


End file.
